Det er svært at sige. Det kan gå begge veje. Men jeg har lige fundet denne "kamprapport" på Virals.
Pompey hold a narrow half time lead over HMRC United...
By Colin Farmery Tuesday 03 Aug 2010 17:14:00
To use a football analogy Pompey probably hold a narrow half time lead over Her Majesty´s Revenue & Customs after a largely dull ´first half´ of their anticipated High Court clash in London.
The kick off was surprisingly delayed, as HMRC submitted a raft of new paperwork around the case, causing the ´ref´ Mr Justice Mann, to retire to his chagning rooms to consider some late changes to HMRC´s teamsheet.
Eventually, HMRC got things underway and put Pompey under some early pressure.Their key striker, Gregory Mitchell QC, was quickly into his stride, calling Pompey´s practices a ´sham´.
´This assessment goes back some way - to the tax year of 2006/07 - and has been a very complex investigation,´ he said.
´PAYE should have been paid and has not been paid. What has happened is that for some years the club has entered into sham agreements under which players were being paid in respect of image rights when in fact there was no commercial basis for it.
´It was a sham. It was a way in which the club could pay the money into a tax haven.´
Another ´sham´ were the ´tax havens of ´employment benefit trusts´. ´The Revenue says these are disguised payments of salaries on which PAYE should have been paid.´
Mitchell was getting a bit predictable and HMRC´s game was losing momentum. ´What the football authorities have done is design a set of rules and a payment system which means that football creditors get paid and HMRC doesn´t. That´s´s why the football authorities always want clubs to win a company voluntary agreement (CVA).
´Their policy is to make it impossible for anyone to challenge this rule and in every occasion it´s HMRC which loses out.´
Quite possibly, but how much were we talking about? ´This appeal is not about precise figures, it´s about principle,´ blustered Mitchell, losing posession, given that the amount of tax owed has a crucial bearing on HMRC´s contentions the club´s CVA was unfairly constructed.
Pompey were being watched in action by Chief Executive David Lampitt and later Administrator Andrew Andronikou turned up at the hearing, just as any HMRC attacking flair disappeared and the game got rather bogged down in the midfield of legal argument.
Given that Pompey felt this ´replay´ was unnecessary, it seemed like the ref was beginning to wonder why the match had to be played as well. ´What exactly are your grounds for appealing, Mr Mitchell?´ he could be paraphrased as saying at one point.
´Er, well your honour. Good question. Ummm. Let´s look at the case of Wimbledon!´ Mitchell paraphrased back. So they did. For some considerable time.
At 4.30pm ´ref´ Mann blew the half time whistle and said the second half would start at 10.30pm on Wednesday.
Pompey should feel they shaded the half without having to go on the attack. However, how many times have we seen our beloved team chuck away a one-goal lead. No time to be counting chickens just yet...